Questions ranged from girlfriends to youth wrestling, but Donovan McMillon answered them all with his ultimate goal in mind: to one day cash an NFL paycheck.
McMillon, a Peters Township graduate and former Pitt safety, spent the past month training in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and traveling between Florida and Texas to play in the Hula Bowl in Orlando and the East-West Shrine Bowl in Dallas. Along the way, he said he met with representatives from 19 NFL teams looking for fresh talent.
“Telling them your life story,” he said.
Which was fine with McMillon, who has nothing to hide and plenty to flaunt. From high school (when he was a WPIAL and PIAA runner-up in wrestling and one of the nation’s top safeties) to college (where he became the first Pitt defender since linebacker Scott McKillop in 2007-08 to record 100-plus tackles in consecutive seasons).
To McMillon, football is way more than a pastime or an avenue to a scholarship.
“It’s something that’s hard to explain,” he said. “It’s something where you have a calling in life. That’s what I feel like it is for me. I love the game, watching it, playing it, teaching someone, learning from it. There’s some kind of adrenaline rush I get from football. One thing I eat, sleep, breathe is football. I want to play as long as I can.”
McMillon, who will return to Pittsburgh for Pitt’s Pro Day on March 26, said the NFL scouts he spoke with — as long as 30 minutes at a time — covered “literally everything.”
“Your background, your background checks and you end up talking about football, your knowledge of the game. They want to know how you’re going to be able to fit into their organization, your mental and physical traits. How smart you are — and IQ-wise to the game of football — and how much do you really care about the game of football. Are you down to play special teams?”
He said they were impressed by his background in wrestling, a sport that he said helped him become a better football player in more than just the physical sense.
“It helped me with leverage, tackling, my grit, my mentality.” he said. “In wrestling, you’re always going to be injured. You’re always going to be hurting. That transitions to football. You’re going to have to drag me off that field if you want me to be off that field. Nothing’s going to hold me back.”
McMillon said he took almost no time off after the last game of Pitt’s season Dec. 26 in the GameAbove Sports Bowl in Detroit. Six days after the six-overtime loss to Toledo, he was on a plane to Fort Lauderdale on New Year’s Day to begin training with other NFL Draft hopefuls, including Pitt teammates P.J. O’Brien and Konata Mumpfield.
After he transferred from Florida, McMillon played two seasons at Pitt that included a 3-9 record in 2023 and a six-game losing streak to end 2024. But McMillon said there was more to his Pitt experience than numbers on a scoreboard, especially his relationship with assistant head coach Cory Sanders, his position coach.
“He kind of pulled my game apart and really built me from the beginning,” he said. “From small techniques to trusting my speed, trusting my angles, trusting my knowledge of the game.”
The losing was no fun — “It’s life. Life continues,” he said — but the rest of it he’ll always treasure.
“Today is a new day. You can always be upset about the past. Obviously, I really wish 2023 could be different, 2024 could be different. But team-wise, there is nothing better than the bonds I made with those guys. Those are friendships I’ll have for the rest of my life.
“I have nothing but fond (memories) in those 25 games, playing with my true brothers. Win, loss, it stinks. You can be upset about it. At the end of the day, I went out there and had as much fun as I could possibly have, and I’ve been blessed to have a chance to go compete at the next level.”
He said the best advice Sanders and coach Pat Narduzzi gave him for his NFL interviews was simple: tell the truth.
“They told me you have to be truthful because the majority of the time they already know the answer,” he said. “They’re seeing if you’re going to be honest and straight-up. Show your knowledge for the game. Show how much you care about the game. They truly want people who love the game. They don’t want someone half-in, half-out.”